Sey Injury Not As Serious As Feared

The picture is not as bleak as originally feared for the Parkettes' Jennifer Sey, the U.S. Team gymnast who injured her leg Thursday in competition at the World Championships in Montreal.

"We thought her whole knee was totaled," said Parkette head coach Donna Strauss yesterday during a telephone hookup from Montreal. "Her patella (knee cap) is dislocated and her femur (bone running up the front of the thigh) is fractured. But that's good compared to what torn ligaments would have meant.

"As far as the orthopedic surgeon up here can tell - and we've been in touch with Dr. (Tom) Dickson in Allentown - she won't need an operation or pins," Strauss continued. "She'll be in casts for four to six weeks, then rehabilitation. And she'll be ready in three months from now to start working out again."

In pain but sounding as chipper as possible, Sey didn't sound completely enthusiastic about heading to the gym at first chance.

"I haven't thought that far ahead," she said over thephone, sitting on the bed in a full-leg cast and surrounded in her Montreal hotel room by sympathetic U.S. teammates. "I'll have to see how it heals up. I know I don't want to stop gymnastics, but I'm not sure how much pain I can take. I'm disappointed. This isn't exactly what I planned."

Sey tumbled from the uneven bars. She released the high bar for a reverse hecht, did a twisting half-somersault over the high bar and was attempting to grab the bar when her foot hit it. She was knocked sideways and to the ground.

"My foot hitting the bar isn't what caused the injury," Sey explained. "It was how I landed on the floor. I'm not really sure how that was, but my leg was out to the side. I was sort of screaming, just hysterical, I guess, till they got my leg in the right position. It was very painful. At the hospital, they gave me something to reduce the swelling and the pain, and that put me out. I woke up at five this morning and I had a cast on my leg. It goes all the way up and down my leg."

After the accident, U.S. Team head coach Don Peters said it was the most serious knee injury he had ever seen a gymnast suffer and he immediately called for the International Federation of Gymnastics to change its rules and allow spotters for women on the bars. Tricks have become more difficult in the past few years and the women do the same dangerous release moves as the men do on the high bar. The men are allowed a spotter.

Noted Strauss, "We still don't know how the FIG is going to handle the situation. It's an American request, which makes things suspect because the people making the decisions are ladies from the Eastern Block countries who have been around for decades. They maintain that a gymnast should be perfect on the apparatus, but that's kind of inhuman.

"Jen warmed the skill up beautifully in her 30 second warmup and Don was there for safety," Strauss said. "During the routine, her timing was a hair early. It's a shame because it was the last event for her."

The politics of an international competition were highlighted in connection with Sey's accident. Strauss reported that when the men from the Soviet Union were competing on high bar, their personal coaches hopped over the barrier and onto the platform to spot their gymnasts.

"The U.S. isn't even allowed personal coaches, but they finally changed that for the next World Championships," Strauss began. "With the skills getting more difficult all the time, personal contact is needed. The Russians got 39 people credentialed (for spots on the competition platform). We (the U.S.) had trouble getting our eighth gymnast in. I guess they give the Russians favors because they're the Russians and they don't want them to boycott."

- The Russians, however, are demonstrating incredible prowess, according to Strauss.

"They're phenomenal in comparison to all the other countries," Strauss said. "Their level of skill and presentation of performance . . . The judges just can't give them enough. Sometimes, just a few tenths of a point separate them from the others, but that's because the scoring only goes up to 10. They should be getting 12s. You watch them and it's a lesson in excellence.

- Sey received a "one or two" for her disastrous bar routine, Strauss said, and she finished 126th overall in the individual all-around competition. Parkette Tracy Calore, meanwhile, finished 41st overall with 75.275 points. Sabrina Mar of California, the U.S.'s top woman gymnast, was 17th with 76.75. Kelly Garrison of Oklahoma was 28th (76.05); Marie Roethlisberger of California was 35th (75.675); and Pam Bileck of California was 49th (75.025).